Creating New Public Spaces The New York City Plaza Program

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Cover image: Aerial view of Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Arto Marttinen on Unsplash.
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Published: Jul 30, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v8i1.1656
Keywords:
public space placemaking pedestrian plaza partnership community involvement

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Hanife Vardi Topal
Izmir Katip Celebi University, City and Regional Planning Department
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3905-8376
Karen A. Franck
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Abstract

New York City was the first city in the US to establish a pedestrian plaza program to create public spaces in neighbourhoods that have insufficient public space in 2009. The Department of Transportation (DOT) operates the program in partnership with local neighbourhood organizations to create these spaces through an incremental process that can be used for a variety of activities. In the research reported here the process of creating these spaces was documented through interviews with government officials and scrutiny of government documents and five plazas were studied in depth in Brooklyn and Queens. Sources of data included: sit observations, surveys with occupants, and interviews with sponsors and city government officials. The findings demonstrate that the process of designing and managing the plazas poses significant challenges for the DOT and for the sponsoring organizations but once these challenges are met, the plazas meet an important need in urban neighbourhoods that previously lacked sufficient public space for recreation.

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How to Cite
Vardi Topal, H. and Franck, K. A. (2023) “Creating New Public Spaces: The New York City Plaza Program”, The Journal of Public Space, 8(1), pp. 27–42. doi: 10.32891/jps.v8i1.1656.
Issue
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2023): Research Perspectives
Section
Articles
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Author Biographies

Hanife Vardi Topal, Izmir Katip Celebi University, City and Regional Planning Department

Hanife Vardi Topal is a teaching assistant at Izmir Katip Celebi University in Turkey. She received a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a Ph.D. degree in joint program Urban Systems from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University. She has been working on several projects related to public space design, community involvement in urban design, and placemaking.

 

Karen A. Franck, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Karen Franck holds a PhD in Environmental Psychology from the City University of New York. She taught for many years in the Hillier College of Architecture and Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey where she also directed the Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems. Her research speciality in urban public space. Her most recent publication is the Routledge Handbook of Urban Public Space (2023) which she co-edited with Te-Sheng Huang. Other books of hers include: Memorials as Spaces of Engagement, (Routledge, 2015) written with Quentin Stevens and Loose Space:Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life, edited with Quentin (Routledge, 2007)

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